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Regional History History of Timbering County Histories Oral Histories Calhoun County Gulf County Jackson County Wakulla County Mary Butera Betty Green Homer Harvey Eloise Strickland Emmett Whaley |
History: Voices from Wakulla County
Mary Butera
Mary Butera was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1918. Her father's successful sweet potato canning business brought the family to Alabama before her father sold the business to take up real estate. Her father bought large tracts of land in South Florida and the Panhandle, including parts of Wakulla County and St. George Island. Mary arrived in Sopchoppy, Florida with her family in 1923.
Click here for complete profile and to listen to her recollections of the construction of US Highway 319 and Camp Gordon Johnston.
Betty Green
Betty Oaks-Green was born in Crestview Florida in 1933. Her father traveled around the state working on various road construction and airport projects from the Space Coast to Eglin Air Force Base. Betty remembers traveling in a two-room wooden house on wheels and just setting up camp wherever work required. Life on the road presented some coastal land purchasing opportunities for her parents, but five dollars an acre seemed awfully expensive at the time.
Click here for complete profile and to listen to her recollections of the changes in Wakulla County.
Homer Harvey
Homer Harvey was born in Arran, Florida, on June 15, 1916, just a few miles from the present-day city of Crawfordville in Wakulla County. Not much is left of Arran anymore, except the namesake Crawfordville-Arran Highway and a few photographs. His father was also a seine fisherman, farmer, and cattleman. Homer picked up his father's agricultural vocation full-time after graduating high school.
Click here for complete profile and to listen to his recollections of his early farming days.
Eloise Strickland
Eloise Strickland was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, September 30, 1912. She moved with her family to Sopchoppy as a young girl when her father became the only physician in the area. She was in the second graduating class of Sopchoppy High School and then helped to get the facility accredited by raising funds for a school library.
Click here for complete profile and to listen to her collections of beekeeping.
Emmett Whaley
Emmett Whaley is a Florida native from Wakulla County. His earliest entrepreneurial memories focus on hunting and trapping polecats (skunks), foxes, and raccoons for their hides when he was just eight years old in 1924. A good day would net four or five animals.
Click here for complete profile and to listen to his recollections of hunting, trapping, and turpentining.
Note: The content of the website has not been updated since 2005. The site remains online for it's value as legacy content and is unlikely to be updated.
